• IPA: /pæɹənɵˈmeɪzɪə/, /pæɹənɵˈmeɪʒə/

paronomasia

1. (rhetoric) A pun or play on words.
   • [1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, OCLC 1062248511 ↗, page 88 ↗:

     Paronomasia to the sense alludes,
     When words but little varied it includes.]

   • 1984, Anthony Burgess, Enderby's Dark Lady:

     […] he gloomily regarded his new digital watch, faintly fascinated by the onward march of the square figures which turned one into the other with insolent ease, a kind of numerical paronomasia.

   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:

     Ev’rywhere but at Norfolk, where talk of Passion far outweighs its Enactment,– indeed, the Sailors’ Paronomasia for that wretched Place, is ‘No-Fuck’.

• paronomasiac
• paronomasic
• paronomastic

• French: paronomase
• Italian: paronomasia
• Portuguese: paronomásia
• Spanish: paronomasia